In 1539 Isabella was married to the claimant of the Hungarian throne, John Zápolya. Their son John II Sigismund Zápolya was born on 8 July 1540. Her husband died two weeks after the child was born, and from this time on Isabella began her struggle to keep the Hungarian throne as a widow queen and the guardian of her child, who was elected electus rex in the meantime.

According to a legend, when Isabella stopped to have a rest at the gates of Meszes, she cut the abbreviation of her slogan into the bark of an old oak tree: SFV – Sic fata volunt, i.e. it is the will of fate. By the request of the Hungarian orders she returned to the country together with her child and her...Read More